Punchboard Media is a group of content creators across all platforms who came together to share their love of board, card, roleplaying and other tabletop games.

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Geek-Craft

Geek-Craft is written by Ken Grazier, with contributions from Bryan Fischer. Ken also demos games at conventions and at friendly local game stores in the Cleveland, Ohio area. He loves to talk about games and help people find games that they'll love.

Origins 2018 is over and done. More people than ever! My schedule was packed with meetings, but I got to check out a lot of cool games. Now that I've returned to the normal world, let's take a look back at the convention.

Origins is this week, and I’m super excited to be going. This is my 11th year (wow!) and there are a lot of changes this year. I’m taking some new approaches and trying to do a lot of planning ahead of time. Let’s look at what has caught my attention in particular!

Bryan recently reviewed two somewhat obscure miniature holders, Mini Grips and The Hobby Holder, but this time he’s reviewing what has quickly become one of the most recognizable and preferred miniature holders on the market: The Rathcore.

Games that are for two players exclusively always seem to catch my attention. The game can focus on the interactions between the two players instead of worrying about balance for multiple player ranges. Small box games also draw me in for being easy to travel with. Omen checks both of these boxes, and it has quite a history. The new take on Omen revamps some of the rules and offers the game to a wider audience. Let's take a look at the base game.

If you haven’t herb of it, Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden is a strange game. There’s no way around that. It’s a game where you’re a vegetable with a vegetable garden, but should you carrot all? Has this bean done before? Or are they producing a new and interesting game? Lettuce see.

Villages of Valeria is an engine building game with action selection that feels like part Race for the Galaxy, part Glory to Rome, but still feels like its own game. There's a Landmarks expansion on Kickstarter now. Are these Landmarks worth visiting, or should you drive on by?

Bryan Fischer’s been testing several different grips and stands for making miniatures painting easier and more efficient. He previously reviewed Mini Grips from Death Ray Designs, but is now reviewing a more all-in-one option: The Hobby Holder.

Storing miniatures is an often talked about topic. Just google it and you’ll find hundreds solutions. I’ve tried a lot of them and I’ve found that many of them work. But at the end of the day I needed a storage solution that wasn’t just a heavy box of foam and bits at my house. I needed a solution that stored my minis, but also came with me to the store to play.

It’s not easy being a pig: people are constantly trying to eat your belly; even after puberty you can’t grow more than peach fuzz on your chinny chin chin, and there’s still that issue of people trying to huff and puff your houses down after you’ve toiled all day on their construction. Thanks to Druid City games; however, your plight has gained some recognition. Now, friends from all walks of the Grimm mythos are popping up. But, will their presence save your bacon or make you squeal?

There are a few companies in the market who make custom laser-cut inserts for games. I own a few of them, and want to talk about their merits, issues, and overall effectiveness. Sometimes having an insert can be great. Other times it’s just a flashy add-on without real purpose.

As someone with a few too many games, I know that I play a lot of weird stuff. I have games about battling goats, running a power company, and climbing mountains. But there's a game in my collection that seems to surprise other gamers - Monopoly. Now, I'm not saying it's perfect, but there's a good chance the game you'd play today isn't quite what you'd expect.

I've played a variety of games recently, which has been great. I started doing my demos a little differently, which has also helped me enjoy more table time. January had a few new entries and some old favorites.

Normally I don't really do traditional New Year's resolutions. Instead I do a 100 x 1 challenge, where I try to play 100 new-to-me games in a year. This has lead to me playing a lot of different and fun games over the past few years, but in 2018, I'm going to change it up a bit.

Ken does a number of conventions each year –- Unpub, Origins, Gen Con, and BGG.Con are the regular ones. He enjoys them all, but BGG.Con will always hold a special place for him. This year was no exception.

With The Path to Carcosa releasing this week, Ken thought a look at Arkham Horror: The Card game would be appropriate. There are a lot of things to consider for this game, so let’s see if it’s a good one for you to check out.

Members of the Punchboard Media crew discuss the hot button topic of reviewing board games -- including thoughts on what makes a good review, negative reviews, the difference between a preview and a review, and taking payment for reviews.

One of my favorite things about board games are the discussions after the game is put away. You talk about strategies, why you enjoyed the game, what you didn't like, and all those fun little details that don't generally make it into a review. I've decided to fix that with First Impressions!

I've really been enjoying solitaire games lately, and I've always enjoyed the way that Button Shy Games creates big ideas in tiny packages. They create wallet games, usually just 18 cards, but the gameplay can be very impressive. Does Twin Stars meet expectations or does it end up in a black hole?